Mount Hibok-hibok

A mountain full of surprises. A mountain less explored. When you say Camiguin Island, what comes in mind would be scenic locations such as the Mantigue Island and the white island and those magestic waterfalls and hot and cold springs, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. You really havent been into Camiguin if you havent climbed the mighty Mt Hibok-hibok.

Hibok-hibok is a strato-volcano which became popular of its 1950 erruption. With an elevation of 1332 meters above sea level, you will be able to have a birds eye view of the island and the neighboring sandbars.

With our adventure, we brought along 2 newbies in the mountaineering world. Me, Madam, Liz and then Jeph and Anna who were both new to climbing and was just dragged since day 1 of the Camiguin Escapade is Mt Hibok2x and they had nothing to do. They were excited and with a lot of questions we started the hike. Our guide was Kuya Ronald who works for the DENR and is the most certified guide in the location.

Since it will be just a dayhike, we bought along lunch and some water since it will never take that long to reach the summit or so we thought. We started the hike around 8 oclock in the morning and ended an hour past 12 at the crater. A storm was brewing so we decided to not just goto the peak.

The trail is established but since its a volcano, you cant expect flat grounds, mostly the trail is 45° and up and if you havent hiked for awhile, that’ll be one tough mountain to climb. Its a continuous slope of uphill climbs which will really get your hearts pumping so my advise, dont underestimate this mountain, I didnt.

We had lunch at the crater, took some photos with almost all white background and we were planning to chill and sleep for an hour but we were advised by our guide that it will be risky to go down at night since that night will be a full moon. And so we told him that doing night trek is fine but what he told us next made us packing in less than 3 minutes.

He told us that if we still be on the trail going down at night and the moon rises, the snakes would come out of their holes to look for food. And judging by how many snake holes we passed along the trail, it will really be difficult for us specially for me, so the 5 hours that took us to go up, we just made it half in going down. We made it safe and alive at the jump off around past 5 in the afternoon.

Tired and thankful and hungry, we ended a day with a celebratory dinner at a resto by the bay near our villa. It was one hell of a dayhike but it was worth it.

I would recommend you bring at least 2 liters of water each, some chocolates and arm guards since there will be a lot of thorny plants and bushes along the trail. If you opt to have it for a dayhike which is recommended, you can also bring lunch with you.